{"id":3919,"date":"2011-03-07T23:51:44","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T07:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lee.org\/blog\/?p=3919"},"modified":"2011-05-30T13:55:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-30T20:55:27","slug":"autohotkey-is-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/07\/autohotkey-is-great\/","title":{"rendered":"Autohotkey is Great"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been using Autohotkey<\/a> for keyboard macros for a while now. I find it virtually indispensable to work quickly and productively. It rocks.<\/p>\n

Here are the most useful macros I use on a regular basis, lifted straight from my AutoHotkey.ahk:<\/p>\n

; hit ctrl-space to make the current window always on top. From http:\/\/www.labnol.org\/software\/tutorials\/keep-window-always-on-top\/5213\/
\n^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A<\/p>\n

:o:..3::My address
\n:o:..4::415-…My phone number
\n:o:..9::94110<\/p>\n

^!r:: ; Run gedit with Ctrl-Alt-r
\n;IfWinExist, Notepad++
\n; I found the name of the window by using “AutoIt3 Window Spy”, which comes with autohotkey
\nIfWinExist, ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel
\nWinActivate
\nelse
\nRun, “C:\\Program Files\\gedit\\bin\\gedit.exe”
\nreturn<\/p>\n

^!c:: ; Run Calc with Ctrl-Alt-c
\nIfWinExist, Moffsoft FreeCalc
\nWinActivate
\nelse
\n;\tRun, calc.exe
\nRun, “C:\\Program Files\\Moffsoft FreeCalc\\MoffFreeCalc.exe”
\nreturn<\/p>\n

^!t:: ; Run Truecrypt with Ctrl-Alt-t
\nIfWinExist, TrueCrypt
\nWinActivate
\nelse
\n;\tRun, calc.exe
\nRun, “C:\\Documents and Settings\\Lee\\Desktop\\My Truecrypt file.tc”
\nreturn<\/p>\n

^!d:: ; Run Chrome with Ctrl-Alt-d
\nIfWinExist, New Tab – Google Chrome ; If there is already a blank window, bring it to front
\n {
\n WinActivate, New Tab – Google Chrome
\n }<\/p>\n

else
\n {
\n IfWinExist, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0 ; grab a Chrome window and click ctrl-n to make a new window
\n {
\n WinActivate
\n Send ^n
\n }
\n }<\/p>\n

WinWaitActive, New Tab – Google Chrome, , 1 ; wait to see if the command worked<\/p>\n

IfWinNotExist, New Tab – Google Chrome ; if we don’t have a new chrome window by now (IE, clicking ctrl-n didn’t work) then <\/p>\n

start it manually
\n\t{
\n\tRun, “C:\\Documents and Settings\\Lee\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe”
\n\tWinWait, New Tab – Google Chrome, , 3
\n\tWinActivate, New Tab – Google Chrome
\n\t}<\/p>\n

return<\/p>\n

^!w:: ; Run Windows Explorer with Ctrl-Alt-w
\nIfWinExist, My Documents
\nRun, explorer.exe
\nelse
\nRun, explorer.exe
\nreturn<\/p>\n

:o:.address::My full address{enter}San Francisco, CA 94110{enter}<\/p>\n

:0:.80::123456789012345678901234567890123456 >40< 3456789012345678901234567890123456 >80{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.–::{- 50}{down}{home}
\n:o:.-=::{- 50}{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.=-::{enter}{- 50}{ENTER}{- 50}{down}{home}
\n:o:.==::{enter}{- 50}{ENTER}{- 50}{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.ms::——– Original Message ————-{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.me::——– End of Original Message ——{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.ss::—- Start of Snippet —-{home}{down}<\/p>\n

:o:.se::—- End of Snippet —-{enter}<\/p>\n

:o:.s::San Francisco
\n:o:.sc::San Francisco, CA
\n:o:.c:: California<\/p>\n

:o:.b::Berkeley
\n:o:.bc::Berkeley, CA<\/p>\n

:o:.date:: ; This hotstring replaces “]d” with the current date and time.
\nFormatTime, CurrentDateTime,, M\/d\/yyyy h:mm tt ; It will look like 9\/1\/2005 3:53 PM
\nSetKeyDelay 0 ; This sets the keystrokes below to be sent faster than the default.
\nSend %CurrentDateTime%
\nreturn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To get you excited in case you can’t read this configuration file, here are some examples:<\/p>\n

:o:..3::My address<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I type “..3(Return)” and it replaces that text with my street address. I use this all the time when buying stuff on websites. Oh, it’s a “3” because my address starts with a 3, making it easy to remember<\/p>\n

^!d:: ; Run Chrome with Ctrl-Alt-d
\n…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hit Control-Alt-D and it starts Google Chrome. Or if there is already a blank Chrome window open, it gives it the focus. This is sooo much faster than picking up the mouse and clicking the icon a thousand times a day.<\/p>\n

^!c:: ; Run Calc with Ctrl-Alt-c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pull up the calculator with a quick key combination<\/p>\n

:o:.ms::——– Original Message ————-{enter}<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I type “.ms” (short for “message start”) and it replaces it with, well, I’ll let you guess. Similarly, “.me” is short for “message end”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been using Autohotkey for keyboard macros for a while now. I find it virtually indispensable to work quickly and productively. It rocks. Here are the most useful macros I use on a regular basis, lifted straight from my AutoHotkey.ahk: ; hit ctrl-space to make the current window always on top. From http:\/\/www.labnol.org\/software\/tutorials\/keep-window-always-on-top\/5213\/ ^SPACE:: Winset, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekery","category-product-recommendations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}